Germany backs Greek rescue package

Angela Merkel welcomed approval for the Greek rescue plan (AP)
12 April 2012

Germany has approved its share of the rescue package for debt-laden Greece.

The lower house of parliament voted 390-72, with 139 abstentions, to authorise Germany's participation.

It was the first of two votes on Friday. The upper house, which represents Germany's 16 states, is due to vote on the package later in the day and is expected to pass it easily.

Chancellor Angela Merkel's centre-right government controls a majority in both chambers.

"We have to make this decision and we have no better alternative," Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said ahead of the vote. "Any other alternative would be much more expensive for the Germans, would be much more dangerous, would carry much bigger risks."

He said central bankers and the IMF agree "it would be disastrous to risk ... a member of the European currency union, Greece, now becoming insolvent."

"This is about defending the common European currency as a whole, and with it we are defending the European project."

Bailing out Greece is unpopular in Germany, which has Europe's biggest economy. Ms Merkel long took a tough line on aid, and opponents have accused her of dragging her heels ahead of a regional election this weekend.

Sigmar Gabriel, the leader of the biggest opposition party - the Social Democrats - said she had "destroyed trust in the credibility of Germany's European policy" and his party abstained.

The Greens, also in opposition, voted in favour. But the Left Party objected to the rescue package on the grounds it would make things worse for Greece.

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